Ben Shapiro says the Trump administration won't cut any foreign aid that will create a “bad headline”
Shapiro: “Some people have likened what Trump is doing to the federal government's chemotherapy for cancer. That's probably right. It'll do some damage to things that you might like, but it'll also take out the cancer.”
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From the January 28, 2025, edition of The Daily Wire's The Ben Shapiro Show
BEN SHAPIRO (HOST): This is all a response to the insanity that was the Biden administration policy. Whether you're talking about Biden administration giving $15 million to the Taliban for contraceptives or whether you're talking about the insane amount of foreign aid that is poured out to use the dictatorships all over the world that they used to just line their own pocketbooks and coffers. The Trump administration is now stopping all of this. According to Politico, the Trump administration's sudden halt on US foreign aid is causing chaos inside groups ranging from health providers to landmine removers, interrupting life saving programs as officials struggle to understand the scope of the directive. So there was an order on Friday from Secretary of State Marco Rubio to cut all of this. Leaders of aid organizations are looking which programs to stop and whether to immediately cut staff or even shut down. As they seek waivers, aid groups are scrambling to adjust.
Now, again, an enormous amount of the coverage of this stuff is going to be that malicious compliance kind of stuff that I'm talking about. The United States is still going to give foreign aid to prevent, for example, HIV from spreading in high risk areas. OK? That's not gonna go away in all likelihood. Anything that creates a bad headline is likely to remain on the books. But the goal for many people in the deep state is going to be to suggest that no cuts can ever be done because if you do any cuts, then bad things might happen. Well, yeah, anytime you cut, bad things could happen, and then you deal with it on a case by case basis. And some people have likened what Trump is doing to the federal government's chemotherapy for cancer. That's probably right. It'll do some damage to things that you might like, but it'll also take out the cancer. And that, of course, is the goal.
Among the aid groups that appear affected are ones that remove landmines from conflict zones, provide testing and treatment for people with HIV in African countries through the president's emergency plans for aid relief, tackling food security worldwide. But again, how much of that aid is actually necessary? How much of that aid is actually useful? That would be the big question. Because it turns out we had some problems here at home as well as many people have noted in the past. If it's not a core American interest, then us spending billions of dollars handing it to dictators all over the world seems like a very, very bad plan.